President Putin: US a wolf who "eats without listening"

guardian: The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, today compared the US to a wolf who "eats without listening" as a public spat between the two countries on the best way to deal with Iran intensified.

Washington and Moscow are split on the appropriate action to take against Iran following the announcement last month from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the country had mastered uranium enrichment.

Russia has made clear that it agrees Iran should not have nuclear weapons but questions whether the country is actively seeking a bomb and whether sanctions would be effective.

Responding for the first time to accusations last week by the US vice-president, Dick Cheney, that Moscow had rolled back democracy, Mr Putin said: "Where is all this pathos about protecting human rights and democracy when it comes to the need to pursue their own interests?

"Here, it seems, everything is allowed; there are no restrictions whatsoever. We are aware what is going on in the world. Comrade wolf knows whom to eat, he eats without listening, and he's clearly not going to listen to anyone."

In an apparent reference to suspicions that the US is planning military action against Iran, Mr Putin added: "Methods of force rarely give the desired result, and often their consequences are even more terrible than the original threat." Read more


db: Putin has a point - did you see Cheney sucking up to the anti-democratic Kazakhstan leader Nursultan Nazarbayev? - Cheney: Sod democracy - they got oil!